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Chris Arreola set to return on March 13

Fighters Network
05
Mar
Bermane Stiverne (R) battles Chris Arreola in their 2014 rematch to win the WBC heavyweight title. Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images.

Bermane Stiverne (R) battles Chris Arreola in their 2014 rematch to win the WBC heavyweight title. Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images.

A knockout loss in his last fight and elbow surgery aside, heavyweight contender Chris Arreola’s pursuit of a world title will continue.

Arreola will return to action on March 13 against Curtis Harper at the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California, Goossen Promotions’ Tom Brown told RingTV on Wednesday afternoon.

The eight-round bout will not be part of the “Premier Boxing Champions” telecast on Spike TV, but highlights of the bout could be shown to accommodate the two-hour program.

Arreola (35-4, 31 knockouts) has not fought since being stopped in the sixth round at the hands of Bermane Stiverne on May 10 in Los Angeles. With the win, Stiverne captured the WBC belt vacated by Vitali Klitschko, whose brother Wladimir holds all of the other major world titles.



Arreola was scheduled to return to the ring in a tune-up bout on Dec. 11 but had to withdraw from the fight due to an injury to his left elbow. It was the same elbow the popular Mexican-American fighter had surgery on about two months after the Stiverne fight.

Arreola has been recently training in Big Bear with trainer Henry Ramirez.

“He has been looking really good in camp,” Ramirez told RingTV late Wednesday night. “One thing is training and another thing is an actual fight. [Regarding the elbow], we’ll see how he looks next Friday.”

Harper (12-3, 8 KOs), who resides in Jacksonville, Florida, has won his last five bouts, all six-rounders, since losing back-to-back bouts in 2013 against Gerald Washington and Donovan Dennis.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for RingTV since October of 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Salazar also covers boxing for the Ventura County (CA) Star newspaper, Boxingscene.com and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing

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